drool a bit?"

She said uncertainly, "Fred, dear, I'm sorry."

"For what? For his giving you more than you bargained for--and me less?
It's all in the family!"

"You don't have to pretend, Fred. I know how you feel."

"You don't know a thing. I _asked_ him to make you beautiful. I wasn't
sure he could, but I asked him anyway. And he said he'd try."

"You _asked_ him--oh, no!"

"Oh, yes," he said. "Are you sorry? I hoped he'd do better for me,
but--well, did you marry me for my looks?"

"You know better, Fred!"

"I didn't marry you for yours either. I told you that before, but you
wouldn't believe me. Maybe now you will."

Her voice choked. "Perhaps--perhaps looks aren't so important after all.
Perhaps I've been all wrong about everything I used to think was
essential."

"You have," agreed Fred. "But you've always had a sense of inferiority
about your appearance. From now on, you'll have no reason for that. And
maybe now we'll both be able to grow up a little."

She nodded. It gave her a strange feeling to have him put around her a
pair of arms she had never before known, to have him kiss her with lips
she had never before touched. _But that doesn't matter_, she thought.
_The important thing is that whatever shape we take, we're_ us. _The
important thing is that now we don't have to worry about ourselves--and
for that we have to thank_ him.

"Fred," she said suddenly, her face against his chest. "Do you think a
girl can be in love with two--two people--at the same time? And one of
them--one of them not a man? Not even human?"

He nodded, but didn't say anything. And after a moment, she thought she
knew why. _A man can love that way too_, she thought--_and one of them
not a woman, either_.

_I wonder if he ... she ... it knew. I wonder if it knew._

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bedside Manner, by William Morrison

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